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Mendelsohn, Gert (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Mendelsohn's niece, an employee in the CSU system, contacted the Oral History Program at CSULB to inform us that she had an oral history of her aunt, who had worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire. She sent us the tape, but no further information on the circumstances surrounding the interview were provided. TOPICS - family history; anti-Semitism in Russia; education in Russia; immigration to US; schooling in US; garment industry work; wages, hours; working conditions; Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire; career aspirations; courtship; marriage and gender roles; husband's work history and union activities; son's participation and death in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion during the Spanish Civil War; social values; and daughter, her marriage and family;This side of the tape is only eight minutes and includes a conversation with both Mendolsohn and her husband regarding his experiences in the garment industry and his activities with the ACWA; 1978
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- 2020-03-27
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- File: lhgwgmendelsohn1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-1:43)... Mendolsohn immigrated to the US when she was sixteen years old, joining her older brothers who preceded her in 1905 and 1907. She had no skills and although she did not know how to speak English, she was able to read and write. She began taking English night classes, but found it difficult to communicate with her classmates because the language barriers. (1:43-4:03)... Mendelsohn was born and raised in, Mglin, a small Russian town. She was not permitted to attend school because she was Jewish. Russian students from big cities traveled to her town on the weekends and during their school breaks provide Jewish children academic lessons. The man who taught Mendolsohn and her siblings lived with them during these periods. Her lessons were supposed to prepare her for high-school entrance exams. (4:03-5:24)... After Mendlsohn's brothers emigrated, her parents were advised that they would be fined 300 rubles per son if they did not return for military service. She describes her father as a nice but lackadaisical person who procrastinated in writing his sons to inform them that the rest of the family wished to emigrate. Her mother, on the other hand, was a very energetic woman who made all of the decisions in the family. She asked Mendelsohn to write her brothers in America. They corresponded for two years until the family immigrated to the US in 1909. (5:24-7:41)... After she was settled in New York, Mendelsohn hopped on a street car in search of work. Although she had no skills at the time, she inquired at a blouse company that had "Girls Wanted" sign outside. She was hired to cut out the blouse patterns and was paid $6/week, working from 8am to 6pm. If she didn't finish her work by the end of the day, she stayed longer. The shop was not unionized, but other garment shops in the area were and her company felt obliged to conform to the working conditions in union shops. She believes that she received a .50 cent raise after six months. Some of the women worked piecework, which she describes as "self-imposed slavery." (7:41-10:33)... Mendolsohn recalls that she worked as a scab before she knew anything about the union. After she joined the union, however, she learned that "you get a little more respect because the union official bargains for you." During a strike, a melee broke out between scabs and picketers and she was arrested. She was placed in a jail cell with two prostitutes. After a period of time, a union official bailed her out of jail along with the other picketers who were arrested during the strike. (10:33-16:21)... After working in several shops, Mendelsohn was hired at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, assigned to the annex building at 11 University Avenue, approximately two blocks from the main building. The annex was a starting point for new workers. If qualified, workers were promoted and transferred to the main building. She received a promotion and her wages increased to $9/week, but she refused to go to the main building because her friend was not promoted at the same time. Had she gone to work in the main building, she most likely would have perished in the 1911 fire. When the fire broke out, the annex was closed and workers rushed to the main building to see what was happening. She suffered from nightmares for three months as a result of what she saw during the fire. Although factory owners compensated families for their losses, their culpability was downplayed because they bribed witnesses to testify that the factory doors were not locked from the outside. (16:21-18:33)... The Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy led to implementation of fire safety procedures in the garment industry and the union began fighting for more stringent labor laws to prevent similar incidents. The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company prohibited workers from speaking to union organizers. Many of the workers felt secure in their jobs and did not want to do anything to jeopardize their positions with the company. When the union attempted to get workers to talk about their working conditions, the owners bribed them not to testify against the company. (18:33-25:16)... After working half day on Saturdays, Mendelsohn went to the library. The first American book she ever read was Uncle Tom's Cabin. The librarian took an interest in her and encouraged her to pursue a career as a librarian, offering to tutor her. Her brothers thought that the librarian had ulterior motives and agreed to help her enroll in evening courses at a local adult school so that she could study to be a librarian. While there, she met her future husband who worked as a cutter during the day and went to school at night in pursuit of a pharmaceutical career. They married a year later and she quit school because "in those days when you got married that meant you're staying home, you're minding house and you're raising babies." She always regretted her decision to leave school. (25:16-29:42)... After they married, her husband continued to attend night school; however, he never became a pharmacist. They moved to the Bronx and for the first time rented an apartment with electricity. Her husband supported Mendelsohn and their two children as a cutter. He was active in the ACWA and was a shop chairman. Later, when he was blacklisted from New York factories, he went to Minnesota in search of job opportunities and Mendelsohn and her children moved in with her mother-in-law. When he returned to New York in 1918, he was able to find work because factory owners were in need of experienced cutters to fulfill government contracts during WWI. (29:42-34:20)... One of Mendolsohn's sons died while volunteering in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion during the Spanish Civil War. She recalls the time she and her husband attended a meeting commemorating the battalion's veterans. They planned to travel to Spain with the veterans and their families to visit the battlegrounds and memorials; however, her husband got very depressed at the prospect and they decided not to go. She discusses Spain's political history. (34:20-40:02)... Mendelsohn talks about losing her son during the Spanish Civil War. In 1961, she and her husband went on a tour of Mexico and visited a Spanish veteran who was involved in the Loyalist struggle. She believes that WWII would have been avoided had Loyalist forces defeated fascism in Spain. She mentions a family friend who wrote Let My People Know which includes excerpts of correspondence written by and to her son during the Spanish Civil War. The title of the book was taken from a note written by Mendelsohn. (40:02-45:58)... Although Mendelsohn notes that she and her husband were not prejudiced, they were concerned about their daughter's engagement to an African American because of society's views on interracial marriages. Her daughter's fiance was drafted in 1942 and they married after he was released from the service. They had two children and he supported their family by working as an artist. Mendelsohn went back to work for a short period of time to help supplement her son-in-law's income. He died from a heart attack in 1962 and her daughter struggled for quite some time raising two children alone. She eventually went back to college and obtained a degree. End of tape. File: lhgwgmendelsohn2.mp3 (0:00-1:39)... Mendelsohn mentions that factory watchmen often lived in garment factories and used the garments as bedding. She provides more details about her husband, noting that after his family immigrated to the US, he went to school. He began working in a store when he was a young man and the owner of the store allowed him to live there while he was in school. He continued in that line of work until he began working in the garment industry. (1:39-4:24)... Note: there is a long pause when Mendelsohn and her husband listen to a conversation taking place in the background. Mendelsohn's husband speaks about his union activities. He joined the union in 1912 and was involved in a strike for a forty-eight hour work week. He recalls participating in another strike in 1918 for a forty-hour work week based on the premise that a reduced work week would provide more people with jobs. (4:24-8:22)... Mendelsohn talks about her husband's experiences as a chairman in the garment industry and the period he was blacklisted. Her husband discusses the split with the UGW and the formation of the ACWA. She recalls the day this occurred because she was at home waiting for her husband to take her out to lunch. When he came home later that evening, he picked her up and carried her through the house exclaiming that the ACWA was organized and "they were going to be more effective for the workers!" End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Gert Mendelsohn worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company at the time of the fire in 1911. She had been assigned to an annex building 2 blocks from the main plant. Born in Russia in the late 19th or early years of the 20th century, she immigrated to the US with her parents when she was sixteen. She went to work immediately in the women's clothing industry and although she had aspirations to become a librarian and was attending night classes, she became a full-time homemaker after she married. The entire family seemed to subscribe to radical political and social values: her husband was blacklisted in the 1910s for his union organizing; their son fought and died in the Spanish Civil war; and their daughter married an African American in the early 1940s. The interview was conducted by Mendelsohn's niece who was employed in the CSU system. She contacted the Oral History Program at CSULB to inform us that she had interviewed her aunt, who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire. She send us the tape, but no further information on the circumstances surrounding the interview were provided. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Mendelsohn's niece, an employee in the CSU system, contacted the Oral History Program at CSULB to inform us that she had an oral history of her aunt, who had worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at the time of the fire. She sent us the tape, but no further information on the circumstances surrounding the interview were provided. TOPICS - family history; anti-Semitism in Russia; education in Russia; immigration to US; schooling in US; garment industry work; wages, hours; working conditions; Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire; career aspirations; courtship; marriage and gender roles; husband's work history and union activities; son's participation and death in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion during the Spanish Civil War; social values; and daughter, her marriage and family;This side of the tape is only eight minutes and includes a conversation with both Mendolsohn and her husband regarding his experiences in the garment industry and his activities with the ACWA;
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